Patent GB-943213-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to a machine for assembling the parts of, or otherwise operating upon, various articles
IPC: H01J9/46
Filed: 1960-03-11
Abstract: 943,213. Feeding workpieces; conveyers. PHILIPS ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES Ltd. March 11, 1960 [March 14, 1959], No. 8666/60. Headings B8A and B8S. Articles, e.g. incandescent lamps, discharge tubes, transistors or diodes, are assembled or operated on at each of a number of operating positions associated with a conveyer system which is built up of units 1 of any desired number, each unit comprising a series of aligned tracks 12 which support article-carrying slides 13 and a conveyer belt 14 disposed below the track 12, the tracks 12 on adjacent units being aligned to form a continuous track for forwarding the slides along the system, and the belts 14 also being in alignment to form a return conveyer for returning the empty slides from the far end of the system. Each of the short tracks 12 is associated with an assembling or operating device 11 which is driven via a gear-wheel 8a from a gear-wheel 8 on a shaft 7 carried by the unit, there being as many gearwheels 8 as there are devices 11 plus one, which drive the conveyer belt 14. The shafts 7 of all the units 1 are aligned and each two adjacent shafts are coupled together by a piece of duplex chain which is passed around juxtaposed toothed wheels 9, 10 on the respective ends of the shafts. The slides 13 are moved step-by-step along the tracks 12 by a reciprocating pusher 54 which is cam-operated through a link 55 to slide back and forth along a vertically reciprocating track section 36, also cam-operated, which transfers the empty slides one by one from the return conveyer belts 14 to the level of the tracks 12. Another vertically reciprocated track section 24 lowers the slides one by one from the far end of the tracks 12 to the level of the return conveyer belts 14. In one example of an operating device, Figs. 3, 4, the slide is positioned by a vertically slidable stop pin 16 engaging an aperture in the slide 13 and a mica plate is transferred from a stack 61 to a template 66 on the slide 13 by a transfer device comprising an arm 63 having a suction head 64, the arm being carried on a shaft 65 which is rotatable and vertically slidable. The arrangement and construction is such that, in operation the arm positions the head 64 over stack 61, then suction is applied to head 64 so that it seizes a mica plate, the arm is then lifted and swung to a position over the template, and is then lowered and the suction removed from head 64 so that the mica plate is deposited on the template. The transfer device and stop pin 16 are operated by a cam 18 and lever 19, this mechanism also causing intermittent rotation of a magazine 57 holding a number of the stacks 61 in holders comprising three pins 62, the arrangement being such that each successive mica plate is fed from a different stack. If for some reason no mica plate is delivered to the template 66, the head 64 when lowered to deposit the missing mica plate contacts the template at a lower position, causing a microswitch 68 to be operated which energizes a solenoid 68a, the latter swinging a plate 22 which carries a pin 69. The pin 69 engages a plunger 21 held in a retracted position in the slide 13 by a ball catch and moves it to a projected position in which it is also retained by the ball catch. In the latter position it lies in the path of a rod 20 connected with the cam lever 19. This plunger 20 is provided on all the operating devices and, as a result any slide 13 having its plunger 21 projected on reaching an operating device prevents all subsequent operating devices from operating on it.